What is “Zameen?”

Zameen is the Urdu/Hindi and Farsi (and maybe other languages? Let me know!) word for “earth,” “land,” or “ground.”

I chose the name Green Zameen mainly because it rhymes and I like how it sounds. But also as a tribute to my own Indian and American background, as well as the kinds of crops I plan to grow, which will include some cool-weather-tolerant crops from South Asia, inshallah.

Another vocabulary word that I expect will be showing up on this blog a lot: “inshallah.” Inshallah is a contraction of three Arabic words: “in” meaning “if,” “shaa” meaning “wills/wants”, and “Allah,” meaning “God.” All together, it means “God willing,” and is used by Muslims all over the world when talking about anything in the future, to acknowledge that whatever plans we make and intentions we have, nobody really knows what will happen, and in the end it’s all in God’s hands. I’ve always used the phrase a lot, but now that my work is so dependent on things like the weather that are totally out of my control, “inshallah” is REALLY close to my heart.